Randy Sportak, QMI Agency

The fund-raising fishing derby the Calgary Flames centre hosted on the weekend off the coast near Tofino on Vancouver Island was a roaring success.

“We had 97 people in the derby, and it was a blast,” Morrison said. “I didn’t get the winner, but had a great time with my dad, my son and my brother-in-law. We had a couple of really nice fish. Our biggest was 27.5 pounds — a beautiful salmon — but the winner ended being 34.5, so a little bigger than ours.”

Morrison also reeled in a contract, inking a one-year pact with the Flames worth US$1.25 million ($850,000 in salary and $400,000 in potential bonuses), which was announced last Friday.

“Yeah … a busy weekend, to say the least,” Morrison said from his off-season home in Tofino. “When we talked at the end of the year, they expressed to me they were interested in bringing me back for the next season. They didn’t give me a time-frame or anything, and I knew there were other issues to deal with, but it was always on the landscape.

“We kept in contact — then somewhat procrastinated a bit — but then it came down to crunch-time, and we were able to work out a deal.

“We were speaking to other teams, but it worked out.”

The unique part of the deal is that Morrison, who’ll turn 36 next month, isn’t expected to be healthy enough to partake in training camp when it opens in September. In fact, it’s expected the knee injury he suffered in March — which not only ended his season but started the downward spiral for the Flames’ playoff hopes — will keep him on the sidelines when the season begins.

Morrison, who seemingly played every forward role imaginable and collected nine goals and 43 points in 66 games last season, has been cleared to skate since the surgery, although he hasn’t.

“I think it’s doing great. I’ve still got a little ways to go, but I’m real happy with where it’s at,” Morrison said. “The only think I can judge it against is my other knee, which I had done three years ago, and I feel I’m much further ahead at this point in time. Last time, I had an infection in my knee, which was a major setback, so I’m ahead of schedule.”

Soon enough, Morrison will be hitting the ice, making the 90-minute trip to Port Alberni to do so, before he and the family head to Penticton, B.C., where his son will attend hockey school in August.

Until then, fans will be able to follow him, since Morrison has joined the world of Twitter, along with a handful of other Flames: Olli Jokinen, Mikael Backlund and David Moss.

“I jumped on board a couple of months ago. We’ll see how it goes,” said Morrison (twitter.com/#!/7bmo). “I’ll get in the mode where I’ll tweet a lot and then I’ll forget about it for a week.